Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
Bookmark the permalink.
that taxi driver story has been covered by LGF for months now.
but hey, we’re talking about the multi-billion pound news organisation called the BBC, that doesnt even cover stuff like the Love Parade in Berlin or Oktoberfest in Munich…. both attended by tens of millions of people.
This morning on “Today” (radio 4) was an unusual story about “cultural ambassadors”.
The idea is that diplomacy in the past has involved politics and trade. The new idea is to also involve cultural exchanges.
Caroline Quinn warmed to this idea: [paraphrased] “What a super idea – this will help to spread cultural understandings and avoid misunderstandings, like the current big misunderstanding about…”
I just knew what she was going to say at this point:
“… islam”.
She delivered this with a straight face – just like it was some objective fact, like the order of the planets, or how to spell “embarrass”.
A big insight into the BBC group-think.
chester ->
“dumbing down” is also a big part of it – and the bbc is a big part of that.
who is instilling a wonder of science and engineering nowadays?
news coverage is also a lot to do with it – its is, nearly always, tremendously depressing , bordering on the suicidal (e.g. “Today” on R4).
then again – werent socialist societies in eastern europe incredibly depressing places? i fear that the optimisim of capitalism has been sapped from britain after 10 years of Gordon Brownstuff socialism.
hence your teenagers with cut arms.
i dunno about you, but i find libertarianism to be utterly refreshing and optimistic compared to the dreary pronouncements of the one-eyed cyclops in no.11.
interesting quote on hys about school selection. i fear this explains why chester above is seeing youngsters with cut arms.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=5666&edition=1&ttl=20070228190700&#paginator
The problem with Socialism is that it always tries to effect “equality” by bringing down the best to the level of the worst. Bright kids from all backgrounds should be encouraged, not sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. There were problems with the old grammar school system but an updated version of it would do wonders for the many kids whose enthusiasm and talents are being crushed in the interests of a failed Socialist ideology.
Anthony McDonald
Recommended by 67 people
“What a super idea – this will help to spread cultural understandings and avoid misunderstandings, like the current big misunderstanding about…islam”
Don’t the BBC already embrace Islam? As for the rest of us poor Brits – we have no culture to exchange . British Culture ended in 1997 (The NuLabour Year 0). We are not allowed to have a culture.
“Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.”
“Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation.”
http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html
Anon was me
Archduke –
“who is instilling a wonder of science and engineering nowadays? ”
I would also include architecture.
I have grown to hate the word “culture”. The more we obsess over it the more we realise we have lost it.
And what’s this hoo-hah about cultural enrichment anyway? Name one way Britain has been significantly changed or improved by Hinduism? (Oh and Chicken Tikka doesn’t count) Not that I’m knocking Hinduism and India – I rather like it on my own superficial level, but we live in the emptiest society on Earth. And we want even more people to enrich “us”.
Was Venice built on this line of thinking? Think about it.
“Because Britain is based on [abstract] values now, goodness is in having the right views, if you have the right views, everything will be okay”
Meanwhile Poles lay the bricks that are the real and literal foundation of Britain…
There’s a drought of remarkable creative individuals. The best we can muster is fuckin’ Babyshambles and the Tate-Modern.
Note the use of the word we above. It’s like I’m expecting someone else to create something brilliant. Maybe that’s the problem.
Bizzare and incoherant rant over.
“Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience,”
It’s collective experience more than anthing else, way more than race and religion, that makes a people and a culture.
We live now in what I call ‘Hotel Amerika’.
A hotel has all the trappings of intimacy – dining rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms and other people nearby – but there is no emotional connection to these things as they are transitory and functional. Hotels are frequently haunted by anonymous phantoms that ghost down the windowless labyrinth of corridors before vanishing. Because that’s how we live now; there is no fleshy human connection to anything: these days, people are not people they are puppets for ideas and mental activity. Your hands are for operating keyboards: characters immediately appear on a glowing crystal screen. Your muscles are for lifting lumps of stainless steel in a gym: though you will never really use those muscles; you can signify to peers how healthy and attractive you are. Your eyes are for interpreting signs and signals: train times, road signs and food labels.
Every other year you change job and relocate and make new friends. Adapt to this, don’t get to attached, loyalties and allegiance, comradeship and friendship can be created and discarded as though they were clothing. The world gets smaller, geographic distance is overcame by transport that can take you to the opposite side of the world in hours. From one city to the next, from one computer to another.
Food exists outside of time and geographic reality: peppers grown in Israel can be consumed in perfect condition all year round.
Cannabis and computer games warp personal reality.
Social networking, blogs and entertainment – because music brings us together – where everything else has been lost, the only things that join us, in raw experience and emotional connection is stupid pop-music.
The more we insist on, and obsess on community and culture, the more we have lost them. (It’s not for nothing that Atheistic lefties are so hot on defending Islam and ‘The Others’.
And if anybody admits to how empty this civilisation this, they must be severely criticised for not contributing, for not participating, for not wanting to be included. In a world without real choice only the criminal act, or willed apathy and indifference gives any semblence of freedom
If you do not socialise, there must be something wrong with you – You have Aspergers. (Says the Psychologist.
Toilets quickly remove evidence of organic reality with the operation of a handle, contraceptives prevent the inconvenience of conception to facilitate ephemeral, sterile, fruitless pleasures.
You will never use those muscles for anything other than lifting lumps of stainless steel.
Loyalties and allegiance, comradeship and friendship will be created and discarded as though they were clothing.
Even your computer, that ubiquitous modern appliance that follows you everywhere with all your favourite music, your photographs and e-mail, doesn’t really belong to you.
Drugs are another food stuff.
These days, people are not people they are puppets for ideas – with language and communication as the sole foundation of all mental phenomena. You are an illusion. There are only symbols.
In this “Hotel Amerika” it is impossible to form new experiences and new memories in a timeless place of constant hyper-technological change.
London is such a big-place, it’s the centre of the world, YET NOTHING HAPPENS THERE.
No really, after the 7/7 bombings, the look on peoples faces was not shock, there was infact, no expression whatsoever. Zero affect. Just a grim sense of inevitabilty. You can see it in the news footage.
What this means, is that we, as modern individuals, have become detached from each other, living secluded lives in large cities, and, as a result, feel no collective responsibility to the people or the place in which we live. We pollute our towns, commit crimes, and generally act selfishly – all because of the simple fact that we have no bonds that keep us together other than money and work. We live in a particular town because we have a job there and that’s it. If we find some friends or if we get married, that’s fine, but it’s nothing that’s tied to a closer cultural consensus. The culture today consists of Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, TV, games, the Internet, and political demonstrations. We have no traditions, no common history or real dependency that bind us together. This makes us feel, deep down inside when we’re alone at night, very lonely and depressed. We know there’s something missing, but we’re not sure if it’s our fault or if we should blame society for it.
We try to find meaning anywhere we can: fast food, sex, drugs, politics – but it never seems to last longer than an orgasm, than a hamburger, than an election, or than a large high. Then it fades as we start to feel even more depressed than before. It’s not strange that we feel this way; our towns are filled with criminality, pollution, corruption, and lack of cultural activities. That is why we spend hours in front of the TV each day after work, or go on the streets on Friday nights in search of a new sex partner because we know that this is the only meaning we can find. It doesn’t bother us that we’ve become empty souls, wandering around strangers in a place that we really don’t care about. We don’t cry because there’s nothing to feel guilty about. What do we care about our neighbors, as long as we get our paychecks on time? What do we care about criminals, as long as it doesn’t happen to us? What do we care about a park being replaced by a mall? – now we have a new place to shop for products.
This is what the BBC think of culture and society –
http://www.bbc.net.uk/history/society_culture/
follow the link and you get this
“Error 404 – Page Not Found”
Says it all really.
Chester-Fish-o | 28.02.07 – 7:36 pm
Wow, bravo!
:+:
“Mathematicians such as John Nash developed paranoid game theories whose equations required people to be seen as selfish and isolated creatures, constantly monitoring each other suspiciously • always intent on their own advantage.”
That is a quite staggeringly ignorant paragraph. Sounds like the program will be contain the typical pomo bullshit that results when students of the arts attempt to understand mathematics or science.
I wonder why the orginator of game theory – Von Neumann wasn’t chosen to represent the subject. A brash, confident polymath compared to Nash’s psycotic savant.
Hang onto your hats – another NuLabour page on the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm
And they also have the nerve to inform us:
“Council tax
Third lowest rise since 1993 – time to crack open the bubbly? ”
I wonder how many OAPs will be celebrating with NuLabour and the BBC.
And while they are celebrating they might like to ponder on this.
“Council tax in England has increased by 114% for a standard band D property* over the period 1993-94 to 2005-06.”
http://www.hbosplc.com/economy/includes/Counciltaxsince199301-10-05.doc
Where they will also find this interesting statistic: In Wellingborough East Midlands council tax has risen from £182 in 1993/4 to £862 in 2005/06 a rise of 374%
That should be “And while they are celebrating (on tax payers money) they might like to ponder on this.”
Oh boy, this has to be one of the worst ever!
Star-crossed lovers quit West Bank
By Matthew Price
BBC News, Jerusalem
She is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. Her name is Jasmine Avissar. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar.
Jasmine and Osama’s is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They met when they worked at the same place in Jerusalem, and three years ago they got married.
First they tried to live in Israel, but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there.
Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them.
Now they’ve given up and are moving to Europe.
[…]
They are an almost unique couple.
Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society has accepted their marriage.
On Jasmine’s Israeli passport, it still says her marital status is “under investigation”.
“Our marriage was a human thing. We just fell in love,” says Jasmine. “The society around us is making it political.”
“I feel like a refugee. The moment I decided not to be part of the mainstream I was told that I was not a part of my country anymore.”
A taxi turns up, and Osama helps Jasmine with her bags.
The drive takes them through occupied Palestinian lands. They pass a tall grey Israeli army watchtower. They drive through army checkpoints.
Israel has been in control here for almost 40 years.
There’s plenty more, but I’d just like to point out to our visitors from the BBC that there are no “occupied Palestinian lands”.
The West Bank they talk about here was controlled by Jordan until Israel took it back in 1967 – which by the way is closer to 30 years than 40 – there has never been a country called “Palestine” so those lands could never have belonged to it!
“Jewish people were abused for thousands of years, but my nation has switched from being victims to being abusers.
“That’s hard for me to acknowledge. The Jewish people are occupiers now, and we are racist.”
Of course rather than report on the three “honour killings” in Gaza in 24 hours, or the gang of Beduin rapists, or the brutal murder by stabbing of a Jew, this is what the BBC feeds the world.
Shame on them all, past and present, I piss on all of you BBC Bastards!
The BBC, half a story and a love story.(Belatedly)
(One everybody else publish a year ago)
Star-crossed lovers quit West Bank
She is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. Her name is Jasmine Avissar. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar. Jasmine and Osama’s is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They met when they worked at the same place in Jerusalem, and three years ago they got married. First they tried to live in Israel, but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there. Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them. Now they’ve given up and are moving to Europe.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6405799.stm
If you follow the above BBC link you will find reference to Israeli watchtowers, how the Israeli are racist and how the Jews are occupiers.
Now here are two articles on the same couple written last year;
Al Jazeera
No bliss for Palestinian-Israeli union
http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=22804
TIMES
Divided by law, lovers are made to relive Ovid’s tragic tale
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article719785.ece
Strangely both of the latter articles actually inform the reader of the real situation of the young couple. Where the BBC articles delves into castigating Israel for the inability of this Muslim couple to live a happily married life. The others actually tell you why. In fact the Al Jazeera article even informs you the young lady converted to Islam. So I wonder why the BBC wishes to promote a story a year after everybody aired, but for some strange reason they omit information that is pertinent to the story.
Information which was actually published over a year ago;
“The court’s ruling, criticised as racist by human rights groups and Israeli Arab MPs, upheld an amendment to a citizenship law introduced in 2002 at the height of the intifada. Enacted in an attempt to stop Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen entering the country, it allowed only Palestinian women over 25 and men over 35 to apply to join their spouses. Mr Zatar is 26.”
I mean it’s not as if the BBC can say they didn’t know about this couple they too wrote about this young couple a year ago.
Live Blog
Richard Bowen
17 May 06, 06:04 PM
Well there’s 2 minutes before we go on air and I’ll be live blogging the show tonight. Jasmin Avissar is on the show, she’s Jewish. Her husband, Osama, is Palestinian. They got married two years ago, but Israel won’t give him permission to live in Jerusalem…. Meanwhile, her permit to live in the West Bank will soon run out
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldhaveyoursay/2006/05/live_blog.html
The BBC, half a story and a love story. (Belatedly)
Bio sorry didn’t mean to jump on your bandwagon.
@pounce
Knowing that the story is more than a year old makes me even more furious now!
Grrrr…
Perhaps if the BBC were to concentrate on the Councils “non-jobs” and show the lunatic waste of council tax, then I would just maybe start believing that they are a “public service”
Top 3 ‘non-jobs’
£100,000. Strategic Director, Children and Young People at Halton Borough Council
£85,000. Assistant Director, Well-Being and Community Services at Hampshire County Council
£60,000. Strategic Leader, Partnerships and Participation at Leeds City Council
All advertised in Guardian Society in first four weeks of November. Source: The TaxPayers’ Alliance
Bio sorry didn’t mean to jump on your bandwagon.
You didn’t mate, we were both posting at the same time 😉
And pounce, I had no idea the story was that old and regurgitated – thanks for the links. The BBC really should be ashamed of itself, with all the fresh news there is to cover they have to do something like this.
I always used to say that when one reads/hears the News one should ask oneself the following:
Who is telling me this?
Why are they telling me this now?
Sorry pounce and Bio – didn’t mean to intersperse your excellent Biased BBC posts.
No prob Jon,
I’m going to eat something now and try to cool down – I’m fuming.
” Jon | 28.02.07 – 8:29 pm | ”
even worse – the supply teacher that got her tits out for the news of the world gets a staggering 30k
(not safe for work)
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news5.shtml
which is the average I.T. wage in this country. and far more than what most scientists earn.
“Topless teacher banned from class”
Also on the beeb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/6404229.stm
She would have got more sympathy from the Beeb and the Human rights crowd if she was wearing a veil.
” Anonymous | 28.02.07 – 7:54 pm |”
indeed – i too was appalled by the sheer ignorance in that paragraph.
in game theory, after all, tries to find a mathematical construct to seemingly chaotic systems – such as human decision making or the apparent chaos of market trading.
for anyone to discover that YES – there is an exquisite mathematical construct behind it , is ,for want of a better word, almost amounting to discovering God himself.
(and i’m atheist.. but i find game theory and other such maths constructs to be utterly wondersome and compelling and just , well, awesome , for want of better word.)
biod/pounce – that one year time lag angle is very interesting. if i dont think of it, could you be so kind as to point it out to Charles of LGF. i’m sure he’d love to post something on it and thus bring it to far far bigger audience.
there’s a tip-off box on his site , on the left column – “contact us”
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php
ok . i just tipped off Charles on the biod/pounce “one year time lag” story.
i would suggest that others join in and do the same so that Charles knows that its a big one and should be flagged.
for the life of me, i cant understand the one year delay either… run up to the attack on Iran maybe, causing the Islamist propaganda machine in Al-Beeb to go into overdrive?
march/april is the tentative time period for an Iran attack apparently -based on carrier movements and such like…
archduke – me too
found it.
hugh hewitt has a blogpost that links to all EIGHT interviews with the author of the “Pentagons New Map”
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/g/b574d84d-44a7-41ca-8c74-0eef7f820b87
utterly compelling listening if you want to get the BIGGER picture , as opposed to the myopic blindness of the bbc. its bascially about what the U.S. pentagon/military strategists are thinking of right now, and how they envisage solving the problems of the 21st century globally. big stuff – and very very interesting.
Interesting piece from Michael Ehioze-Ediae at http://www.18doughtystreet.com/news_agenda/60
Excellent criticism of the Independent – but this could also apply to the bbc.
here’s the rss feed if you have podcasting software:
http://www.townhall.com/talkradio/podcasts/4e30b10c-64d4-4d39-b459-81a5039c6c55.aspx
jon – heh! i like it. you could add many many more nationalities to that list. there’s a lot of people worldwide who are seriously angry with Islam.
Have we lost another blogger – first DFH now USS Neverdock last post Tuesday, February 06, 2007
you lost me as well – i was islamophobic.blogspot.com
it was to do with the move of blogger accounts to google accounts. at least blogger was fairly anonymous – but having a google account is somewhat disconcerting from a privacy point of view.
newsnight has turned into a new labour party political broadcast.
clare and milburn being interviewed about the “leadership” contest.
christ – its like as if the berlin wall didnt fall and we’re still in thrall to kremlinology.
oops – typo – i meant clarke and milburn.
freudian slip. one does wonder how you reply to long lost ex-girlfriends that contact you out of the blue on friends-reunited.
A report for Al Beeb to catch up on:
” Further terror arrests in Walthamstow ”
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog.cfm?frm=1952
staggering – newsnight right now is doing a lengthy docu piece on CHINA!!!
the reporter is English,but speaks fluent Mandarin (or maybe its Catonese – i dont know)…
wow. 1 billion people are finally on the map – as opposed to the years of beeboid ignorance of china in favour of suicide head choppers in palestine.
i hope this is a trend. it about bloody time they started reporting on what really matters in the world – and china is definitely that. it matters – big time.
Perhaps the BBC could tell us of any affect in Chavez’s paradise where, in the unregulated market, the value of the Venezuelan currency has tumbled since the nationalisation of leading companies.
Well, it’s a start:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6403683.stm
P.S
It’s been edited for brevity. Wonder what the unedited version is like.
P.P.S
Why exactly it’s under news is beyond me.
Now that’s more like it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6400525.stm
Loved the pic.
Credit where it’s due.
max -> like many folks i initially started off with giving chavez the benefit of the doubt. having shanty towns while the rich elite cream off the profits is somewhat unjust.
venezuala was almost like a modern version of “let them eat cake” 17th century france.
unfortunately that initial trust has been broken by chavez’s headlong rush into communism, which will impoverish everyone in that country.
its very sad to see that initial hope be destroyed by his sucking up to utter dictators, who have no care for human life, like Castro and AhMahDinnerJacket.
I’ve just read all the articles pounce linked to on the Israel girl and her “Palestinian” husband.
First, surprisingly, the Al Jazeera report is far more balanced and neutral than the BBC’s and doesn’t blame Israel. ie:
But while the law attempts to deter their union, their families have supported it.
Zatar’s mother welcomed Avissar into the family, although his father took a year to accept his new daughter-in-law.
Avissar’s family and friends in Jerusalem all welcomed her husband. “I didn’t break any taboo, as I was brought up to treat people as people,” she said.
When an Israeli newspaper ran an article about the couple last month, they expected a fiery reader response, but it did not happen.
“We didn’t get any nasty calls and nobody said I betrayed my country,” says Avissar. “But ours is such a human story, it would be hard not to have sympathy.”
Avissar converted to Islam in order to marry Zatar. “I believe in God,” she says. “But I don’t think that any one religion is any more right than the other.”
So, if the girl converted to Islam (something a-Beeb doesn’t tell us) why does the BBC refer to her today as a “Jewish Israeli”?
Apart from Avissar’s condemnation of Israel it seems the reason they are packing up and moving to Europe is because even though she is now a Muslim the “Palestinians” won’t accept her.
First they tried to live in Israel, but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there.
Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them.
Now they’ve given up and are moving to Europe.
[…]
“There were threats. People said if I brought my wife here we’d be in danger. Even my friends said that. They say I am a traitor.”
“It makes me wonder whether I want to be a Palestinian any more. Some see me as some sort of Israeli envoy. It’s a shit feeling.”
So, the bottom line is although part of the problem is Israel not allowing the “Palestinian” husband to live in Israel with his Israeli wife, the real reason they feel obliged to emmigrate is “Palestinian” intolerance.
The only excuse the BBC have for re-visiting this old story today is because the couple have finally decided to leave the West Bank, but the BBC have made every effort to blame Israel for their decison.
Defenders of the BBC (Reith, Andy Tedd et. al.) will no doubt tell me the report is balanced and gives equal space to both sides. Perhaps. But with all the other current issues that the BBC is ommitting to cover I can only see this as another attempt to further promote the meme of Israel=bad racists, “Palestinians”=poor loving souls.
I’m still very angry.
” max | 28.02.07 – 11:14 pm |”
shades of the Thatcher “mummy returns”. maybe stephen mulvey is a closet Eurosceptic, having a sly dig at the beeboid mindset.
Honest Reporting has picked up on the BBC’s reporting from Nablus.
Scroll down to the second story:
http://www.honestreporting.co.uk/articles/critiques/The_Times_A_Non-Story_With_No_Context.asp
The video Honest Reporting links to is the same Matthew Price using the same “Palestinian land (West Bank) illegally occupied by Israel for 40 years” that he uses in the report we were discussing of the Israeli/Palestinian marriage.
Repeat a lie often enough and it grows legs of its own.
Archduke,
maybe stephen mulvey is a closet Eurosceptic, having a sly dig at the beeboid mindset.
At last Beeboids are putting their ‘fair and balanced’ sneering tactics to good use. Practice makes perfect, as they say.
“Prison service leaders are being criticised amid claims they are relocating an office from Corby because the town is too white.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/6406307.stm
Where’s the outcry – where’s the marching by Human Rights groups, Why is there no big headline and MPs stamping up and down in anger.
Answer – nowhere.
More news from that apartheid state in the middle east that the BBC doesn’t want us to know:
ISRAEL HAS ARAB PREZ
Instead, what do we get from the BBC?
Eurovision ‘Armageddon’ in Israel
Israelis have voted overwhelmingly for a song about nuclear annihilation as their country’s entry in this year’s Eurovision Song contest.
Push the Button is widely thought to be a response to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Islamic republic’s fiery president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“When it hurts, laugh.”
– Traditional Jewish Folk Wisdom